The husband of Alberto Rangel, the UCSF social worker who last year died after a stabbing attack at San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 86, filed a lawsuit against the city Wednesday morning, alleging an “unreasonable failure to provide security” before his late spouse’s death.
Stuart Moulder, Rangel’s husband and partner of more than 20 years, alleges that the city knew the exact time Rangel’s alleged attacker said he would appear, that the head of hospital security promised to keep staff safe and that the city failed to see the warning signs that could have saved his husband.
“Alberto’s death wasn’t the result of a single breakdown in security,” wrote Nick Casper, Moulder’s attorney. “It was the culmination of years of inadequate protections, repeated warnings that went unheeded, and a series of failures to respond when the threat became specific and immediate.”
Moulder previously submitted a request for damages on May 28, 2026. The city denied that claim on July 30, 2026, according to the lawsuit. This lawsuit, which is yet to be processed or scheduled for the future, requests a jury trial and changes to security.
“Mr. Rangel’s death is a tragedy, and our thoughts are with his loved ones,” wrote Jen Kwart, spokesperson for the city attorney’s office. “We will review the lawsuit and respond in court.”
Rangel, 51, was repeatedly stabbed on Dec. 4, 2025, while working at Ward 86, an HIV/AIDS clinic at San Francisco General. He died two days later.
Rangel’s death sent shockwaves through the city’s medical community. But colleagues also told Mission Local that healthcare workers had long been worried — and repeatedly warned hospital management — that something like this could happen. Instead, they said the city repeatedly ignored their requests for increased safety measures, even as the number of violent incidents increased.
There were 32 total reported violent incidents at San Francisco General Hospital in Oct. 2024. In Oct. 2025, there were 51 of these incidents — a 60 percent increase.
Rangel’s attacker, Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, was also a known — and feared — presence at the clinic, according to staff who spoke anonymously with Mission Local.
“This could have been avoided on so many fucking levels,” an eyewitness said at the time of Rangel’s death. “We knew three weeks ago about this patient.”
Previous reporting found that Tortolero Arriechi had appeared at another health center, the City Clinic, at 8 a.m. on Dec. 4, hours before Rangel’s death, behaving in a way that appeared “odd” and erratic. Tortolero Arriechi reportedly asked to see one doctor, whom staff said he had become fixated on. That doctor worked at both Ward 86 and the City Clinic.
City Clinic staff tried to calm Tortolero Arriechi down and ultimately convinced him to leave, said a nurse at that clinic.
According to Moulder’s Wednesday lawsuit, this wasn’t the only warning that day: Tortolero Arriechi arrived at Ward 86 around 11 a.m. on Dec. 4, again acting erratically and asking to see the doctor, the lawsuit alleges. Because neither Ward 86 or City Clinic had metal detectors or security, it is unclear whether Tortolero Arriechi had a weapon on him at this point. The lawsuit alleges that when Tortolero Arriechi left Ward 86, he told clinic staff he would return at 1 p.m.
Basil Price, director of security at the Department of Public Health, received phone calls and emails about Tortolero Arriechi’s behavior from City Clinic and Ward 86 during both of these instances, the lawsuit states. “Price stated that CCSF would take reasonable steps to protect Ward 86 workers from Arriechi,” it added.
At 12:28 p.m., Price called the San Francisco sheriff’s office and requested support, identifying Tortolero Arriechi specifically by name and date of birth, the suit alleges. Around 1 p.m., a deputy sheriff now identified as Runyi Li arrived at Ward 86.
At approximately 1:30 p.m., Tortolero Arriechi arrived again at Ward 86. He briefly spoke to a receptionist before Rangel came forward, addressing him in Spanish, and began to walk with him back to the elevators. There, Tortolero Arriechi stabbed Rangel repeatedly with a five-inch kitchen knife. The knife penetrated Rangel’s left lung, bowels, neck, chest and arm, according to the lawsuit, cutting several arteries.
At the time of the attack, the lawsuit alleges, Li was down a hallway, out of sight of Ward 86’s reception desk and elevators. The sheriff’s office later claimed that Li was at this location because they were shadowing the doctor that Tortolero Arriechi had been trying to find, and that they responded to the attack immediately.
According to eyewitnesses who have previously spoken with Mission Local, Li began to walk towards the scene of the attack, but “froze” in the hall, while hospital staff stepped in to pull Tortolero Arriechi off Rangel. Mission Local learned that Department of Public Health director Daniel Tsai confirmed in a private March meeting that hospital staff intervened in the stabbing, not the deputy.
Li detained Tortolero Arriechi 10-15 seconds after he dropped the knife, according to witnesses, and San Francisco police arrested him over an hour later, when they arrived at 3:04 p.m.
After the attack, the sheriff’s union spread a narrative that Li had stopped the stabbing (spending at least $30,000 to push that story online). Eyewitness accounts and an audit by the Department of Public Health found that it was hospital staff who intervened and broke up the attack.
Rangel’s heart stopped, according to the lawsuit, but his colleagues restarted it and kept him stable until emergency services arrived. The oxygen deprivation he experienced during this time led to a series of strokes, which ultimately led to his death, the lawsuit notes.
Tortolero Arriechi pleaded not guilty on Jan. 7, 2026.
Since Rangel’s death, the city has announced a slew of security measures at San Francisco General and other city health centers: These include screening hospital visitors for weapons upon entry, and increasing the presence of deputy sheriffs at city health centers.
Healthcare workers noted that they had been requesting these exact security measures for years. So had Cal/OSHA, which cited security failures in 2020, when it fined the city over $26,000 after an emergency room nurse was punched in the face and slammed onto the floor by a patient.
Following Rangel’s death, Cal/OSHA issued another seven violations — six of which were deemed “serious” — and fined San Francisco General Hospital $130,500.
Last month, social workers protested outside San Francisco General, saying that UCSF still isn’t doing enough to protect them at work.
